1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to air guiding devices, and more particularly to an air guiding device for electronic components in enclosures.
2. Related Art
During operation of a personal computer, heat is generated by the electronic components thereof, especially by electronic packages such as central processing units (CPUs). High-speed processing of signals by a CPU results in a correspondingly high amount of heat being generated. Thus, cooling of CPUs is an important consideration in designing computers. Generally, a heat sink and a fan are used to dissipate heat generated by the CPU. The heat is radiated by the heat sink to ambient air, and heated air is conveyed by the fan to an exterior of the computer enclosure via an air opening. However, heated air often cannot freely flow out of the computer enclosure through the air opening. After the computer has operated for a period of time, a large amount of heated air may accumulate within the computer enclosure. This can lead to instability or even failure of the CPU and other electronic components inside the computer enclosure.
Taiwan patent publication Nos. 288627 and 352172 each disclose an air guiding device for overcoming the above-mentioned problems. Each air guiding device comprises a heat sink module and a ducting means. One end of the ducting means is attached to an air opening of the computer, and an opposite end of the ducting means is attached to the heat sink module by screws or hooking means. Heat is dissipated by the heat sink and blown out of the computer through the ducting means.
However, during assembly and disassembly of the computer, the ducting means must be respectively attached to and removed from the heat sink module. This is unduly cumbersome and time-consuming. In addition, each ducting means is sized such that it can only be used with one type of heat sink module. That is, heat sink modules of varying sizes each require individual ducting means having correspondingly varying sizes. Another drawback of the cited prior art is that when the ducting means becomes dirty, it is cumbersome and time-consuming to disassemble the ducting means in order to clean it.
Thus an improved air guiding device for electronic components which overcomes the above-mentioned problems is desired.